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So, I am making Sundays my day for weight checks. It's a little guesswork for this first week because I didn't have the scale last Sunday, so the starting weight may be off by a pound or so, but it looks like I lost about 4 pounds this first week that I really made an effort and tracked my eating. Of course, a lot of this is water and an effect of changes in diet, but I am obviously on the right track.

The thing I struggled most with this week was resisting late night snacks. I ended up eating too much trail mix. I bought that to add a bit to fruits or cereal, but if I have it around, I have a hard time resisting it, much more tempting than chips etc. for me. Better than many other things, but still not ideal. Any ideas what to keep around as 'healthy' snacks? I will make an offort to keep cut-up fruit in the fridge, small carrots, celery, maybe pretzels, low fat cheese - any other tips?

Stefan

what I do stefan is freeze a bunch of berries and grapes and other fruits. when I want a late night snack, I pop in a few handfuls of frozen blueberries or grapes and I'm good to go. Healthy and no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

I haven't lived the life I wanted, just the lives I needed too at the time.

what I do stefan is freeze a bunch of berries and grapes and other fruits. when I want a late night snack, I pop in a few handfuls of frozen blueberries or grapes and I'm good to go. Healthy and no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Yes! I do that too. Frozen grapes are pretty amazing. It's kind of like eating tiny sorbet balls.

Thanks, great tips. Never heard of frozen grapes as snack but I have some in the fridge, will stick them in the freezer in the morning. And I did not think of edamame, that is an easy snack I really like, same with wasabi peas. Keith also stores peeled bananas in the freezer which sounds like a good idea because I can never eat them fast enough and don't like them when they get too ripe. I was never a big popcorn fan, so I will pass on that but I do see how it would work for others. Today I had a late lunch so dinner was just a bowl of ahi shoyu poke (raw cubes with scallions and shoyu) - very satisfying I also had a bit too much caffeine today, that's why I am on the web at 4:20am...

Basically, it's a call to stop wasting money on research comparing different diets, they all work about the same as long as you stick with them - and that is where more research is still needed: How to increase long-term adherence, changes in behavior patterns and exercise. The only people benefitting from discussing the different diets are not the people who want to lose weight but the companies in the multi-billion diet product market.

Anybody still with this? I am writing things down, using the Weight Watchers system which allows for a good variety of choices. Just trying to choose smarter and eat reasonable portion sizes without torturing myself. The only thing I have 'given up' for now is alcohol, just because it is easy and I don't miss it much. But I am now a good 11 pounds down after 3 weeks, so I will spoil myself with a nice brew or wine on Wednesday when I go to dinner with a friend.

Still looking for my exercise motivation, but I am happy with progress so far, trying to continue.

Stefan

P.S. Oh, and I really like the frozen grape snack. I also make a base of slightly thinned greek yoghurt, sugar and vanilla a few times a week and cut whatever fresh fruit looks good in there and eat it whenever I feel like it. Easy to eat a larger bowl as dinner and not feel bloated or load up on fat.

Curious if you've heard about the 5:2 diet which was mentioned on the Diane Rehm show on NPR? The up side to this one is that it may be easier to maintain in the long run though I believe the studies are still in the early stages.

Cheers!

once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right

Thanks! Never had heard of that particular version of it, but intermittent fasting has been around forever - mostly in the way of having a day per week when you only eat fruit etc. I may inadvertently have done something like that myself, because there were a few weekend days when I did not do much and also ate very little. When I was younger, I used to fast 2-3 weeks every spring, bit I have too much going on for that right now, and I wanted to start something with a long-term perspective that I can maintain. But adding a couple of very low calorie days per week sounds doable, I'll think about how I could do that with the least interference with other things.

Curious if you've heard about the 5:2 diet which was mentioned on the Diane Rehm show on NPR? The up side to this one is that it may be easier to maintain in the long run though I believe the studies are still in the early stages.

Cheers!

I actually prefer 'Eat Stop Eat' by Brad Pilon (I have the e-book), or the protocol set out by Martin Berkhan on leangains.com (although this is more designed for bodybuilding...it's still highly effective!). The 5:2 diet is kind of a spin off of Eat Stop Eat...although Brad's book is much more comprehensive and well researched.

As for me...I've been off work the last two weeks, and have put on a chunk of weight lol. It amazes me how fast it goes on, and how slowly it comes off!! So....for the next few months I'll be wearing my BodyMedia FitLINK, and monitoring my activity and what I eat a bit more closely .

I try to be the man I am..in times of broken lives. Shattered dreams and plans..standing up to fight. Pressures and demands..staring at the knife. Holding in your hands..